1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of electronics, and in particular to electronic chips that generate extraneous heat during normal operation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for conducting heat away from an integrated circuit, which still more particularly may be a microprocessor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical personal computer (PC), the main heat-generating component among the logic circuits is the processor, also referred to as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) or microprocessor (MP). As illustrated in FIG. 1, a processor 102 is mounted in a socket 104, which is mounted on a (printed) circuit board 106 by mating pins 108 from the processor 102 into the socket 104. As processors continue to grow in performance, so does the heat generated by the processors. To remove heat from processor 102, a heat sink (HS) 110, having a HS base 112 and a plurality of fins 114, is secured to processor 102 by a strap 116. Heat is conducted from the processor 102 to the HS base 112 and the fins 114, which dissipate heat by conduction and convection to ambient air surrounding fins 114. To provide thermal conduction between the processor 102 and the HS base 112, thermal grease 118, typically a thermally conductive silicon or filled hydrocarbon grease doped with fillings such as metals, is used.
A major problem with the heat sink mounting scheme shown in FIG. 1 is that strap 116 places a high force on pins 108 against socket 104. Even if strap 116 is replaced by a rigid frame, force is still being unduly applied to pins 108 by the weight of HS 110, resulting in unwanted fragility loads.
What is needed therefore is a device that provides a firm mating between the top of processor 102 and the bottom of HS base 112, without inducing a fragility load on the pins 108.